Sunday, September 7, 2008

"RaceDay" Pulls Out All The Bells And Whistles

The edition of RaceDay from Richmond is showing all kinds of extras and is going to get a post for today. Two stages inside and outside the track, two sets of announcers and two pit road reporters who are being worked like never before.

John Roberts and his team of Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace have a new addition in the infield. Steve Byrnes is hosting Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds from a second set that seems to be located adjacent to Victory Lane.

In addition, both Wendy Venturini and Hermie Sadler are being used to set-up the individual driver and teams stories as they review The Chase and the race.

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JD I am assuming you are amazed in a good way. They are really on it today and I just love Wendy and Hermie by cars on pit road instead of a fairly empty garage (at least driver wise) or in the bus lot.

ESPN has updated the programing on my DVR and now reads the NASCAR race at its scheduled time today as well as reads the Nationwide race on ESPN2, however SPEED never did that with RaceDay, it still shows different programing being scheduled right now. I wonder how that works?

Am enjoying the Raceday. I was wondering though, why did they put the Cup race on at 1pm on ESPN up against 2 football games, a basketball game and pga golf, and then the Wide race at 7 on espn2, when it would have made more sense to leave the cup race on ABC at 7pm, drop the funniest home video rerun, the home makeover and some singers saluting the troops and be up against only 1 football game, simpsons and big brother 10. Then have the wide race at 1pm on Espn. Is ABC so inflexible that the race had to be on last night or not at all?

Jo it's not you, they always seem to ask the questions I would like answers to and when they ask that same annoying question (like Wendy with Kasey re pressure getting into the chase) they do it right with that insider I know this is a pain but I have to ask attitude

billH, I don't think ABC/ESPN had any say in which race was first on today....those Cup boys want to get home!

And I agree - Wendy is a rock star!

PS - I have a ticket to the Nationwide race, could have gone, but got a computerized call from RIR telling me the race was postponed, and that if I wanted to be assured to be in my seat by 7pm, I'd have to be at the track by 4pm! But with all the Cup traffic still at the track, where the heck as I supposed to park?!

RIR and Nascar have had a tough weekend, there is not doubt about that.

I wish Speed understood how much better their Race Day show is when it runs right up to green flag coverage.

Who cares about ESPN...they don't seem to mind running their NFL pre-game show right up to kick off even though FOX and CBS have their own pre-game shows before the games they are covering. Mabye there is quid pro quo with the Speed videos on Nascar.com, but I would certainly trade the Nascar.com videos for the best pre-race coverage on TV.

Great show, this is what made this the best prerace show, moving it back an hour sucked the life out of it and today it was back and I loved it. I agree compete with the other prerace shows (I guess except Fox that might be a little problematic). I'll watch Raceday and record the other in case someone actually says something profound

I like the approach of having one panel of crew chiefs and one of drivers. It has also got Kenny and Jimmy on their toes. No table dancing today.

JD, I had that same thought--it just seemed to work well. I switched over just to check the ESPN networks at 12:40 and was surprised to see NASCAR countdown. I ended up just leaving it there, but it was nothing special. Same old interviews, but Raceday did that too so I can't say much about that. Rusty & Brad going on about how exciting it was gonna be...Brad *tries* a bit too hard sometimes...

just caught part of the last hour of Raceday. Agree with all the positive comments.

Indeed, pushing this show to END hours before the race does suck the energy out of it.

WHY does ESPN get "TOP BILLING" for the pre-race when their entire handling of NASCAR FOR REAL FANS, is a sham in many opinions? SPEED gives the sport and fans the real deal (no pun intended but what the heck)

I had no clue ESPN had a preshow but just turned on the laptop. Don't care...will only have the race on for background today but will not be giving it my full attention.

I always watch part of & enjoy Race Day - especially today. I'm also an NFL fan, so I was also checking the FOX & CBS NFL pre-game shows. Since my Time Warner digital schedule had no update of NASCAR race, etc. schedule, it never even occurred to me to see if ESPN had decided to have a pre-race show.

Besides avoiding competition for ESPN, why again has SPEED backed up Race Day an hour?

I always enjoy watching RaceDay on Speed. Everyone knows what they are talking about and they give good information. Speed's entire team seems to work well together. Wendy's brother Billy' ARCA team won today too. They are a true race car family.